Want to interject a massive dose of awkwardness into your next conversation? Try casually asking the question, “So . . . who is your god?”For many in our culture, this question prompts a provocative or even puzzled response.
Many in our increasingly secular culture recoil from any discussion of religious beliefs, and there is palpable reluctance to engage in public discourse regarding truth claims.
However, here in Indianapolis in our increasingly globalized neighborhoods, the question “Who is your god?” would likely elicit a ready reply from many adherents of other religions.
The response from our Muslim neighbors would be an immediate and emphatic reference to their oft-stated religious creed which unequivocally rejects the divinity of Christ. From our Hindu neighbors, they’d likely refer to the vast pantheon of +330,000,000 deities they worship. If we were to broaden our examination to a global scale, we’d encounter a myriad of other responses from the vast number of religions and belief systems among the world’s 17,260 people groups.
The perplexing aspect of this question is that a growing number of people don’t ascribe to any particular faith tradition. Theses “nones,” now comprising 28 percent of adults in the US, see themselves as unaffiliated with any religion. So, does that mean they don’t worship any god at all? Does the refusal to acknowledge a specific religious system mean they aren’t engaged in worshiping anyone (or anything)?
In Timothy Keller’s book Counterfeit Gods, he argues that all humans are prone to allowing something (anything!) to become more important to us than the one true God and that the thing which “absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give” becomes an idol (xviii).
During REACH|24, our theme will be “No Other God” from Isaiah 45:22, which is God’s emphatic declaration, “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.”
While few in our culture today would identify with literally bowing down in homage and worshiping a statue or something manmade, idols of our own making are not limited to physical objects.
The subtle snare inherent in idolatry is that “good things” which we elevate in our hearts can end up becoming “ultimate things,” displacing our hope in and affection for the one true God. What serves to deepen our dilemma regarding idols is our inability (or willful refusal) to identify them as such!
These “good things” that subtly tempt us to place our hope, joy, and fulfillment in them rather than in Christ include: family, friendships, and relationships; sports and hobbies; politics and winning the culture war; comfort, safety, and convenience; and money, career, or material possessions. So, how can you identify the idolatry in your heart and begin to find satisfaction in the one true God?
- Take heed of God’s sobering judgment of the cause and effect of idolatry: “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 3:15).
- Take hold of the opportunity during REACH|24 to examine God’s Word and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any looming idols or lurking threats within your own heart, knowing that God’s grace and forgiveness is available to all who repent (1 John 1:9).
- Take action to intentionally, humbly proclaim to your neighbors and the nations the goodness and glory of the Lord God, to whom “every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance” (Isaiah 45:22).
There’s no more important question we could ask ourselves—and others—than “Who is your god?”
